Intrigue
by sailorverystupid
Summary: chapter 4 up. On a date with a supernaturally sexy supermodel, Freya Lockke (not related to Tom) finds herself with the prince of shadows, why is he alive? What sinister games does he have planned this time? And how much DOES Jenny love Tom?
1. chapter 1

Intrique-chapter 1  
  
Disclaimer- I own Freya and Dwain, I'm just making this up as I go along so for the moment L. J. Smith probably owns everyone else except God, God most likely owns him or herself  
  
  
"God bless me with an idea" pleaded Freya Lockke as she stared down at the lined paper she was supposed to be writing a story of intrique on. She sat waiting a full 5 minutes but apparently God had writers block too. Either that or he just didn't care. She sighed, "okay, well, lets plan this thing." she told herself logically "First off, we need a hero or heroine with an exciting name, lets see, I think like a girl, write like a girl so the main character will HAVE to be a girl" speaking of thinking, she figured she had done enough for one night. Time to turn in. she told herself stubbornly and she sighed as she crawled into bed to face the poster of the most gorgeous man alive, the amazingly hunky model Dwain Philipps. A soft grin graced her lips as she remembered that he was coming to meet her tomorrow, in person, on a date "competitions are the BEST" she sighed "when you win them" she added as an afterthought.  
"How true" came an unheard voice from outside her window and the shadows in the darkness agreed.  
  
***************************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
Tomorrow came sooner than expected and instead of the 7 hours Freya had been expecting to get ready, she now had 5 minutes "SHIT" she screamed when she got up, she threw a dressing gown over the old t-shirt she was wearing, dragged a comb through her hair and raced downstairs to get herself a coffee before mr amazing arrived. She raced into the kitchen, flung open the cupboard and grabbed herself a mug, but dropped it as she turned to put it on the table. "Hi" said the husky voice of the man of her dreams  
"Oh h-hi D...D...D...D...Mr Philipps" He laughed  
"Don't you think you should get dressed? I'm not taking you out looking like that, competition or no competition"  
"Yes...yes I suppose I should, shouldn't I." He laughed his melodious laugh again  
"yes, goodbye, I'll pour you a coffee and replace the mug I caused you to break. And call me Dwain" he shouted after her as she crawled up the stairs  
"I can think of a few other things I'd like to call you" Freya muttered as sexy nicknames ricocheted around her brain. She thought she heard him say "not in public thank you" and laugh again but he couldn't read her mind, could he??  
"You'd be surprised" said the model at the table "my little 'Love Tiger'" but by this time she was out of range of hearing.  
6 hours and 55 minutes later the 19 year old girl practically jumped down the stairs. "OK she cried, now I'm decent" Dwain whistled in appreciation. I could argue with that. he thought. She was wearing ankle boots, denim hot pants with little blue flowers embroidered on them, and a sleeveless blue bellytop with a heart shape cut out just above her breasts. her amazing red-brown hair was twisted into a knot at the back of her head and held together with chopsticks (and they actually were chopsticks-with little dragons carved in the ends-but they didn't look stupid or out of place at all)  
"OK" he said for no apparent reason when they sat down together at the table  
"OK" Freya repeated "what are we doing today?"  
"I don't know, but we are NOT to go to the sushi bar, the cinema or the studio I usually work at" he said  
"Fine by me" Freya agreed "any particular reason?"  
"Yeah" he admitted "Thats wher the press thinks we are." Freya laughed as she looked over at the living version of the poster which lulled her to sleep at night and smiled "Lets hit the town and do whatever we feel" she suggested  
"Sounds good to me" he agreed and she grabbed her suede jacket and her keys and walked outta the door, leaving her cup of cold coffee forgotten on the table.  
  
Review Please, Even if you hate it ^_^; 


	2. chapter 2

Intrigue-chapter 2  
  
Disclaimer- I'm not even gonna bother, the disclaimer for the first chapter stands.  
  
  
  
The minute they stepped out of the house it was like wading through a sea of reporters, Freya wasn't so sure she liked it. What she did like, however, was that Dwain was holding her very close as he professed to the reporters that they would first be going to the sushi bar, then to the cinema to see 'Tears of Doom', the latest slushy romance film, before he would whisk her away and give her a guided tour of the studio. Freya worked really hard to keep from laughing out loud. When the press seemed content with where they were going, Dwain escorted her to the Limo he had waiting. "So where are we really going" she asked again  
"You know what?" he replied  
"What?"  
"I'd really like to meet your friends"  
Freya gave the chauffer directions to all her friends houses, starting with Summer Parker-Pearson, and after a few moments of explaining what was happening, Freya came back to the Limo without her  
"Whats going on?" asked Dwain "Doesn't she want to come?"  
"Don't be silly Dwain, of course she does" laughed Freya, "But she overslept and is wearing even less than I was this morning, so she's going to get dressed, meanwhile, she's Invited us all in for a cup of tea"  
"All?" asked Dwain "Tea?"  
"Me, you, and the chauffer. Summers family don't like coffee, so they don't buy it" she answered  
"oohhhhhh" he said "OK, come on Julian, you heard the lady"  
"Julian?" asked Freya, Summer had often told her of a Julian, a dashing, hunky Julian who had fallen in love with her best friend, Jenny and put them all in terrible danger. A Julian from the shadow world, dark, evil, dangerous.  
She shook herself and got out of the car, following Dwain, Julian behind her. It was stupid to be afraid of a man because of his name but she refused to turn around nevertheless.  
When they got to the house Summer was waiting by the door, she greeted each of them in turn "Hello Mr Philipps, Hi Freya" Freya waited for the last greeting, and waited, and waited, refusing to turn around. But when it never came she had to turn, she needed to se why. She turned slowly, very slowly, head bowed, dreading the sight of the man who had haunted her dreams for an eternity of shadows, since Summer first told her of her journey to the shadow world. She raised her head, again slowly. She first took in his shoes, Immaculately polished, very black, raising it more she saw that he was wearing the uniform of a chauffer. She moved her head again, this time slightly to one side, his wrist was mostly covered by his sleeves, but she thought she could just about see a green tail poking out from underneath. Finally, she looked at his face. ohhhhhhhh shit. she thought, he was exactly as Summer had described him, from the beautiful blue eyes, like mountain lakes, to his pure white hair, like a mist had settled on his head. Summer herself was still standing by the door, she had thrown a dressing gown on, thankfully, and was gaping and staring with wide eyes at the shadow man posing as a chauffer  
"Oh. My. God" she said in a voice so low it was almost whispering "J-Julian"  
"Hello Summer" he replied "Don't worry, I'm not trying to kill you anymore"  
"T-trying??" she stuttered  
"Oh yes, thats right, Oh well, at least you're here to tell the tale"  
"Am I...Missing something hee?" asked Dwain, looking sheepish  
"Oh Don't give me that bull Dwain, you know perfectly well whats going on. Shall we?" asked Julian. Freya was confused until she saw that he was gesturing towards the table. She slid into a seat, while summer poured 4 coffees and they sat down to talk and reminisce...  
  
Chapter 3 still to come. I've never got 4 reviews in one day... Thank you ^_^ do it again and I may have another chapter out by tomorrow, If you don't know who Julian is I suggest that you read the Forbidden Game. Yummy. byebye now ^_^ 


	3. chapter 3

Intrigue-chapter 3  
  
A/N OMG! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry..First off, at the last posted chapter, I had only READ the first book. Sumer was dead. Julian wasn't. I knew that would be reversed but I didn't know when and how. So, cos England (other than London) seems to have, like, absolutely NO L.J Smith books on sale (Other than 3 Nightworld books in my nearest WHSmith) I went and ordered them from amazon.co.uk, but they ran out of stock so it took 3 weeks for the book (Yes, singular, I got the collector's addition) to get here. I read it last night (I cried, literally, am I sad or what??) and then suddenly thought HOLY SH*T! I put Intrigue on hold or 3 WEEKS!! So, here I am and here it is. Enjoy.  
  
________________________________________________________  
  
They sat down. Freya, Dwain, and Julian. When Summer didn't join them, Julian looked up. Of all of the 7 friends who had played his games, Summer was the least trusting of Julian. While Jenny, Tom, Michael, Zach, Audrey and Dee had watched the slow transition from Evil Julian to Nice Julian, Summer had just woken up and, boom, the evil shadow creature who had killed her was being nice. When he'd died...everyone was upset because he'd done a brave and daring thing, Jenny more than others, Summer much less. Sure a small part of her wanted to sit down, to find out why Julian was even alive, but more of her wanted to run and hide under her blankets, shaking in terror. Somewhere through her mental conflict she could hear Julian's calm, soothing voice, coaxing her to sit down. A thought struck clear through her hazy mind. She licked her lips, drew in a deep breath, and opened her mouth  
  
"I think we should call the others, get them to come round, or do you feel like explaining your sudden existance another 6 times, not including the explanation you owe me?" Julian displayed his favourite, trademark smirk  
"Good idea, but if 3 boys are coming..." he gestured to her 'clothes'  
"Point taken- but you know what Julian? For a shadow demon, you sure are a conventionalist," Julian raised one eyebrow, then the other, before bringing them both back down in thought, apparently trying to figure out what she was on about. Summer saved him the bother  
"You expect the ordinary without even considering the other possibilities-for example I bet you think I'm right handed, it doesn't register to you that I could be left handed, hell, for all you know, I could be a lesbian" Julians pale face turned...less pale for an instant and then calmed. As Summer walked out of the room, she heard him cough "Zach" She rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs to her bedroom.  
  
When she had gone, Dwain opened his mouth  
"She's not, you know" Julian just looked at him for a few seconds  
"Dwain I do NOT need your freaky-deaky little mind powers to tell me whether somebody prefers one sex or another. Though it IS completely beyond me where that little tirade came from" The two boys looked over at Freya. She was Summer's friend and was likely to know more than even Dwain what was going on in her head. Deep in thought, Freya mumbled "Probably wanted to defy you or make you look stupid in some way" Julian and Dwain nodded, leaving the girl with her thoughts.  
  
Freya was more remembering than thinking. She remembered Summers disappearence, how miserable it had made her, it had affected the entire student body. The main group of friends Summer hung out with had said she was dead. Most of the school said they killed her. Freya wasn't in their group then and from the stories they had told about what had happened to them she was glad of it. Of course she hadn't believed a word they'd said, but monsters, nightmares, supernatural things, things that go bump in the night, ~forbidden things~ had always intrigued and fascinated her. she really ~wanted~ to believe, so somewhere in the back of her mind, she did. When the entourage had gone away-disappeared for a time, ~then~ she started to believe-really believe in what they'd said. who would want to escape anywhere so bad? Obviously everybody back at school had said that they were fleeing the crime scene, running from the cops as it were. And then when they'd returned waith Summer and Summer told them all the same story the entourage had about her disappearence, the students came to the conclusion that it was all a prank. An overly elaborate lpublicity stunt of sorts. Somewhere in the back of her brain, Freya had filed it as unsolved. Until earlier, when that freaky limo driver had shown up.  
  
~FREAKY!~ Something that Julian had said rammed it's way into her head, refusing to go away. Freya remembered every minute detail of the conversation that had passed her by a minute ago, and she could distinctly remember Julian referring to Dwain's "freaky-deaky mind powers". Freya made a concious effort to look across the table at the two boys opposite her, currently talking animatedly. She began to realise that they both had an "aura" a srt of glow of unearthly beauty. She had expected it in Julian, who was nothing less than aethreal, but she also saw it in Dwain. Freya had always thought Dwain to be absolutely gorgeous, but she expected that any normal guy would look like something that had just crawled out of the sewers in Julian's prescence, but he still looked wonderful. Almost unnaturally so, certainly enough to arouse suspicion in Freya's mind. She formulated her suspicions into a question which she was about to ask before there was a knock at the door and 6 people came tmbling in. Summer offered them tea, coke, and a bottle of water for Dee and when they were finally all sat around the table, Julian began.  
  
"Don't worry" Dwain whispered into Freyas ear, "You'll find the answer to your question if you listen"  
___________________________________  
  
OKAY!! If ya hate it-tell me so, if ya luv it-make me glow n_n 


	4. chapter 4

Intrigue-chapter 4  
  
A/N This is basically a synopsis of the books. Told in my own way, from Julian's POV, for those readers out there who don't know, or are a little hazy about, the story of the forbidden game. But that doesn't mean to say that you can totally ignore it just because you know all the books by heart. READ IT  
  
________________________________________________________  
  
Julian started talking immediately, beginning with the part Freya already knew. His words wove a web, spinning lifelike pictures before their eyes. He told it like a story rather than a relation of events, and Freya was happy to listen, sinking into the pattern of his words. He went on;  
  
"This all began when Jenny was 5, from the moment I saw her, I wanted her for myself. I was so...so....In love with her, I followed her life. Viewed her every movement, you could even say I stalked her" Jenny visibly shuddered at this and Julian ignored her, he carried on talking. "I made sure she didn't come to harm, but to do so, I had to watch her. I had to watch her fall in love with Tom, I had to watch their first kiss. their thousand upon thousand dates. It hurt, it hurt really bad. But then, on Tom's seventeenth birthday, Jenny stumbled into my shop, my place between the worlds and I sold her the game. The forbidden game.  
  
"She had her suspicions about it, uncertain whether or not she should play it, but she had no other games to play, and it was too late now. It was obvious that her friends thought that that was all it was. A game, and she couldn't disappoint her boyfriend on his birthday, could she? So they accepted the rules of the game, callously invoking the rune uruz, to pierce the veil between the worlds and on the ninth chime of an unseen clock, they were plunged into my world, Niflheim, the world of shadows, where they had to face their fears, their nightmares. But I don't just throw people into the shadow world for no reason, every game has a prize, and Jenny was the prize for this one. The rules of the first game were simple, You are in a house, you must face your worst nightmare before you can progress to the next level of the house. All of these nightmares are very real, and if you die in the house, you die in the real world. The door at the top of the house is open, free for everyone to go through after the nightmares are all over.  
  
"No one has ever beaten the game before, I was so certain that she was finally mine, but they all did it. All except Summer. Summer should have died, destroyed by the darkness and fear of her own nightmare, but I kept her alive, if not just for Jenny. They beat the game and, as promised, the door was open. But one person still had not faced his nightmare, the person I had put at the top of the house, Tom. The nightmare Tom had drawn on his slip of paper was losing Jenny. I thought I had won. Whatever happened, I would still have Jenny. So Jenny promised herself to me in return for the lives of all her friends. Having sealed it with a promise ring, the words "All I refuse and thee I chuse" laying heavy on her skin. I was feeling so victorious, but Jenny tricked me. Shutting me in the closet of a replica of her grandfathers basement and sealing it with another rune, Nauthiz - the rune for containment. She ran, dragging her friends and Tom with her.  
  
"When they were back at Jenny's house, they stuffed the game back into the box along with Jenny's promise ring. Cramming the lid on and sealing it with an entire roll of cellotape, they were sure nobody would ever release me. But It wasn't too long before two boys opened the closet door and let me out. Startled, maybe even scared by my appearance, they stumbled backwards into the arms of my ancestors and were killed immediately.  
  
"I was mad, angry, depressed. But I still wanted Jenny. I needed her. She was the ray of sunshine a shadow needs to come into being" At this, he threw Jenny an urgent look, following it around the table and Freya knew that this was a significant piece of information. Satisfied that he had got the message across, Julian continued;  
  
"So that was the beginning of the second game. I got the idea from a game that a group of children, brothers and sisters of the seven-currently six- players, had made up. I often find children to be most interesting and imaginative. The game was called Lambs and Monsters. The rules of the game are as follows:  
  
There is one monster, who chases the lambs. The lambs hide from the monster, who has to find and tag them. Once he has tagged them they must retire to his lair, where they have to stay until another lamb frees them. Or" his eyes glinted " Or until the monster eats them" he smirked. "But the monster can't eat them until all of the lambs are in his lair.  
  
"Obviously, my version was a little more sophisticated, and the stakes were higher. I was the monster, and Jenny and her friends were the six innocent little lambs. They didn't have to hide because I knew exactly where they were. I dragged them off to my 'lair' one by one. Leaving behind only a paper doll and a clue as to who was next. Jenny found my lair, but she was a few minutes too late and I had already won. But if that didn't bother her before, why should it now? Pushing me into a vortex of my own creation, she dragged her friends to safety. All except her cousin Zach got out.. Tom went back for him, but he took too long and they were both lost. Now I had them, they were mine to use as wished, and I wished to use them as a prize, don't I always? And so began the third and final game.  
  
"I now had Zach and Tom in Niflheim and I sent the remaining four players on a treasure hunt to find him. the rules were simple. Find three tokens and you get over the bridge to find the prize. But I never let anyone win easy, and this game, set in a funfair built as a form of torture by my ancestors long ago, was the most emotional for the few players left. Highs and lows were in store as Jenny was forced to accept the cruel fate of her grandfather" Jenny winced "and I let them find Summer, alive and well, though sleeping thoroughly. I caused them all to admit to their secrets" he looked at Audrey "and their desires" he looked at Jenny.  
  
" Even through all this they remained solid friends and they won the game. I felt so defeated, but I had to accept it. This was final game and there could be no more. I had lost Jenny for good. She loved Tom and there was way to change that, but my ancestors, the elder shadow men, claimed her as their own. By freeing the spirits of their victims, they felt that she had violated their business. They wanted to kill her, but I wouldn't let them. So I made a bargain, a life for a life. It was a bargain which the Elders gladly accepted. Jenny and her friends, all of them, went free while the Elders carved my name from the runestave.  
  
"It hurt. It was a pain so great, so unbelieveable, you would never, ever feel it. each stroke they made was like a gash in my flesh. I felt that it was me that they were carving. I was weak- so weak that it scared me, I remember swearing to myself that I would never be weak. Jenny and the players took me with them, but nothing could save me from my fate." There were tears in the eyes of everyone in the room. Ignoring this, Julian continued, with surprising finality;  
  
"Except Jenny" Everyone looked up sharply. This was it.  
  
___________________________________  
  
OKAY!! If ya hate it-tell me so, if ya luv it-make me glow n_n 


End file.
